Kids can discover the wonderful wilderness this summer, even if they travel no further than the local library.
Erin Hunter, author of the bestselling Warriors books, is introducing a new series, Seekers. In Seekers: The Quest Begins, Kallik, Lusa, and Toklo are three young bears facing the unforgiving wilderness alone for the first time.

For more information about the Seekers, CLICK HERE.

John Rosemond, the family psychologist who writes a weekly parenting column, has named four books he recommends for parents. (Rosemond is not a habitual endorser: If you believe in “traditional” parenting, you’ll probably agree with him. More the Dr. Feelgood style? Don’t bother.)

They are: Have a New Kid By Friday by Dr. Kevin Leman; Confident Parenting by Jim Burns, host of the HomeWord radio show; Internet Protect Your Kids by Stephen Arterburn and Roger Marsh; and How to Behave and Why by Munro Leaf. If the last book comes across as a tad old-fashioned, there’s a reason: The original texts were written in the 1930s and ’40s.

Rosemond takes a no-nonsense approach to parenting with little concern about warping a kid’s fragile sense of self-worth; instead he expects kids to mess up, and when they do there are consequences.
The first book, New Kid by Friday, sounds a little like boot camp. Consider the subtitle: How to Change Your Child’s Attitude, Behavior and Character in 5 Days. Dog trainers say that obedience training is more for the owners than the dogs; same rules applies here to parents.

Sit!

Read!

For more on this and other Rosemond columns, CLICK HERE.

I’m doing official DelMio work, having picked up a copy of Walt Disney’s Cinderella, Retold by Cynthia Rylant. Rylant is a former Kent (Ohio) resident and a pretty well-known children’s book writer. She’s no Madonna, but there’s only room in this world for one Madonna, and Madonna has it.

Anyway, a story to file under “Small World,” it turns out that two of the six books we’re exploring for the Ohio Center for the Book have authors who not only knew each other but one helped the other get started in the publishing biz. Rylant had two small children a decade or two ago and she hired Angela Johnson to watch her kids. Various bios describe the job alternately as “nanny” or “baby sitter.” In any event, Rylant eventually discovered Johnson’s writing talent and helped shepherd the young writer through the publishing jungle. And then Johnson went and bought Rylant’s house when she and her partner, “Captain Underpants” author Dav Pilkey, moved out of Kent.

Johnson has a reputation for being a recluse. No listing in the phone book. No personal Web site or Facebook entry, apparently. She has been interviewed, but does not play the publicity game much. I guess she prefers to express herself through writing.

Dave Wilson is the Grand Pooh-Bah of Editorial Content at DelMio.com, a site developed by SunLit Communications LLC. He also is at times janitor, chauffeur, chief cook and bottle washer. Once upon a time he was a metro editor and copy editor at the Akron Beacon Journal. Send love letters and trash talk to dave.wilson@delmio.com. Or post a comment. Whatever.